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Celebrity endorsements and women consumers in India: how generation-cohort affiliation and celebrity-product congruency moderate the benefits of chronological age congruency

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Abstract

We examine the joint impact of celebrity-consumer age congruency, generation-cohort affiliation, and celebrity-product congruency on consumers’ evaluations. We propose that celebrity-consumer age congruency positively impacts consumers’ evaluations. Next, integrating key insights relating to the differential impact of celebrity advertising across Generation X versus Generation Y, we propose that the effects of age congruency are stronger in Generation Y consumers. Finally, we propose that the above results are moderated by the extent of celebrity-product congruency. Findings across multiple studies, across about 800 Indian women consumers, provide converging support for our propositions. These results contribute to the research on celebrity-consumer age congruency and differences in consumer behavior of Generation Y versus Generation X. On a practical note, these results help us better understand Indian women consumers, celebrity advertising, and Generation Y consumers, noting here that India has more Generation Y consumers than the USA and China combined.

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Notes

  1. However, there is work which finds that a match between the celebrity’s age and consumers’ “self-perception” of age increases positive attitudes toward the brand (Chang 2008).

  2. We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this pretest.

  3. Technically speaking, we could have used just two products. One product would be congruent with Deepika Padukone but not congruent with Madhuri Dixit; the other the exact reverse. We could not find a suitable set of two such products and so we used four products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 313001, India

    Subhadip Roy

  2. Department of Marketing, University of South Carolina, 1014 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Abhijit Guha

  3. Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Wayne State University, 5201 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA

    Abhijit Biswas

  4. Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India

    Abhijit Biswas

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  1. Subhadip Roy
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  2. Abhijit Guha
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  3. Abhijit Biswas
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Correspondence to Abhijit Biswas.

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Roy, S., Guha, A. & Biswas, A. Celebrity endorsements and women consumers in India: how generation-cohort affiliation and celebrity-product congruency moderate the benefits of chronological age congruency. Mark Lett 26, 363–376 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9354-1

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